The single biggest struggles I encounter with entrepreneurs trying to build a business is marketing. Some small business owners don’t think about it; some don’t understand it; some don’t like it; some cling to the belief that it simply shouldn’t be necessary, as long as their product is good enough. One way or another, though, […]

As if year-end wrap up lists weren’t enough fun by themselves, I thought I’d share another particularly good ‘list of lists’ specifically designed for small business owners. SmallBizBee compiles a list of their most popular published list, to create the Top 10 Small Business List Posts of 2009 master list. Ranging from topics such as […]

As my year-end consumption of ‘top ten lists‘ continues, I came across one on Chicago Now called “The Top 10 Small Business Trends of the Decade” by Barry Moltz. In the list he mentions several things that have all dovetailed together to define the changing nature of work — most centered around the pros and […]

I grew up in a family-owned business. I remember, back in the early 1980’s, when my mother (the bookkeeper) got her first computer for the business: it was a Data General and it was bigger than our dishwasher. It had five-and-a-quarter floppy disks; it had virtually no RAM to speak of; and it came with […]

As a business owner, part of my job every day is to stay on top of the news — particularly as it relates to both my community and my industry. Once upon a time, that would have been courtesy of a subscription to a local business journal or a few targeted trade publications. But these […]

What do FreshBooks, Shoeboxed, BatchBlue, MailChimp and Outright all have in common? Aside from being Web 2.0 businesses who serve the small business market, they are also the founding member organizations of The Small Business Web. An exciting initiative that launched earlier this year, The Small Business Web is a partnership of businesses dedicated to […]

The second annual Interactive Austin Conference has wrapped up, and in true social media fashion, there is no shortage of online accounts of the day’s activities (with more to be coming over the next few days, no doubt). Online already are keynote coverage posts by Ricci Neer, for each Dion Hinchcliffe, Sam Lawrence and whurley. […]

This week was the second annual Interactive Austin Conference. Focusing on the value of social media for business, AI09 convened a broad spectrum of experts, locals and practitioners to share, debate, network and learn about how to take advantage of social media for the benefit of business. Keynotes Starting off the day was industry leading […]

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